


An Understanding Passed In Silence

by cjr



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Everybody Lives, Faeries make an appearance, Fluff and Crack, Getting Together, Jackson is a sweetheart, M/M, Pack Bonding, Stiles doesn't talk, ish, stiles and derek make pancakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-27 09:05:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5042311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cjr/pseuds/cjr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started off as something of a joke. One moment he was talking Scott’s ear off about some homework assignment and Scott made a joke that Stiles couldn’t spend a day without talking if he tried.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Understanding Passed In Silence

It started off as something of a joke. One moment he was talking Scott’s ear off about some homework assignment and Scott made a joke that Stiles couldn’t spend a day without talking if he tried.  Stiles laughed and made a face, casually remarking that he wouldn’t want to anyway and then continued to complain about stupid ass Harris and his stupid ass homework. 

Then it happened again. He was talking at the lunch table and Jackson made some comment about how no one in the group had time to think with how much Stiles talked.  The group laughed, Stiles glared, Lydia playfully smacked Jackson upside the head, and the conversation continued.

And again when at a pack meeting he was talking about movies with Erica and then realized that everyone was looking at them waiting for him to stop so the meeting could start.  “At least there aren’t any awkward silences with him around,” Lydia said as she began discussing the current status of the pack’s negotiation with other California packs.

Again with Scott and Allison between classes, talking about who knows what: “I don’t know, we were just maybe hoping for some time to talk together…”

At a party with some girl he’d just met while he ranted about superheroes and the lack of general representation: “It’s kinda cute, how much you talk.”

When Coach Finstock was lecturing the team on strategy: “Stilinski, would you close your rapper, I’m trying to teach formations.”

When doing homework at Derek’s one day after school and talking to Boyd about how stressful the college application process is and how he doesn’t know what classes he would want to take, let alone what he wants to do with his entire life:  “I don’t understand how someone who talks as much as you do gets along so well with someone who never talks at all.”

At the station dropping off lunch for his dad: “What happened to the sweet, quiet Stilinski boy we all knew and loved?”

All were jokes and they shouldn’t have meant anything. But by the end of the week, Stiles couldn’t stop thinking about it.  If three times is a pattern, more than that must be god given truth. Stiles Stilinski talks. A lot.

Naturally, Stiles is a curious sort. So he couldn’t help but be curious what would happen if he just stopped.  It started out as something to do for a day.  Not talk for a day.  But then it got out of hand, so he hasn’t spoken a word for almost a month. It’s funny, how much more he sees when he doesn’t talk.  Suppose it makes some sort of sense, then, that the first word he says in a month is “Derek!”

 

“Stiles, dude, we’re gonna be late to chemistry and you know if we are that Harris will give us detention and then we’ll miss practice so get your act together!” Scott called as he started heading to chem class, not even waiting for Stiles to finish up grabbing his things and start following.  Chemistry was a fairly easy class to get through, plus Stiles had faked a doctor’s note to use if he got called on in class.  He got a few suspicious looks from Harris when he had gone through half the class without an interruption, but other than that it was easy.  This silent thing wasn’t so hard! 

His next class was just as easy, though he did have to show his teacher the note when he was called on for his take on last night’s Macbeth reading.  English was always one of his favorite subjects and he was hard pressed to keep his comments to himself, but he prevailed.  Passing period he got through by walking quickly and not looking up when he heard his name called.

He had a short study hall before lunch. Lunch, he knew, would be the hardest challenge.  He was debating what to tell his friends, but decided to just say nothing and see what progressed. Scott immediately gave him a questioning look, but Stiles shook his head and smiled.  Whatever Scott took that to mean, he nodded and looked away. Lydia clearly noticed, but deemed not to mention it.  It took Allison longer, but when she did she just stared at Stiles until he made eye contact with her and then she stopped and continued lunch as normal.  Erica, Boyd, and Isaac weren’t eating with them that day, doing whatever it was the three of them did alone.  Kira, Cora, and Malia were off together, working on an art project. All of this, Stiles could’ve predicted. The only curve ball was when after lunch Jackson followed him to his locker and asked if he was okay. After recovering from his clear shock, he nodded, to which Jackson responded with a nod and walked away. He got through the rest of the day equally as well.

After school, he drove home where he started to work on homework.  He got a text from Scott reading _Dude, what’s up? Are you feeling okay._ It took Stiles a while to decide whether or not texting counted as talking and if he could legally respond. He decided he could so shot a quick text back, _Yeah. Just trying something._ Scott sent him a thumbs up in response.

  An hour later he heard a knock on his door, which he went to answer.   Lydia Martin was on the other side of his door.  “So here’s the thing, you haven’t spoken a word to me all day, which a couple years ago was my daily dream.  But now its odd and I don’t like it but I wasn’t going to mention it, because maybe you just didn’t want to talk but Jackson’s been bothering me since school let out to see if your okay,” she said, pushing inside of him and walking to the kitchen to look in his fridge.  When he didn’t respond, she turned to look at him.  “Are you okay?” 

He nodded. 

“So, you’re not talking because…”

He shrugged with a smile.

“Okay.  Should I be worried?”

He shook his head.

Lydia narrowed her eyes at him. “Fine.  Then we are going to watch America’s Next Top Model and eat ice cream and you are going to have to listen to me complain about their outfits and attitudes,” she grabbed ice cream from the freezer and flounced over to his couch.  He joined her after grabbing a spoon for both of them because she always forgot the spoon part of ice cream eating.

Stiles knew Lydia had a no phone policy when she was watching reality TV (something about the experience not being as good if you could get distracted) so his curiosity was peaked, he nudged her with his elbow and raised his eyebrows. 

“Allison, Scott, and Jackson have been texting me non-stop about whether you’re okay or not,” she must’ve sensed his confusion because she rolled her eyes.  “You stopped talking, dork.  We were worried. So I’m gonna tell them that everything is fine and you’re not talking for… how long?” Stiles shrugged and turned back to the TV.  “For the present future, then. You know it’s not going to go over well at the pack movie night tonight though.”  Shit, Stiles had forgotten that it was Friday. He pouted and Lydia laughed at him before putting away her phone and turning her attention back to the screen.

Lydia drove them both to Derek’s. After all the supernatural shit settled he’d talked about renovating the Hale house, but he’d either decided against it or just postponed the idea because he bought a nice, small house closer to the center of town instead of looming on the outskirts like a creeper.

When they arrived, Erica, Boyd, Cora, and Isaac were already there, taking over the couch.  Scott and Allison were right behind them with Jackson and Danny following shortly after them.  Malia arrived last with Kira, Liam, and Mason in tow.  “I swear to god, you guys need to get driver’s licenses before I go mad,” she said as she plopped on the couch and shimmied until she mostly fit between Cora and Isaac.  The other’s took spots on the floor.  Jackson and Danny sitting on of the other chairs in the room and Lydia joining them. Allison and Scott took the floor in front of them.  Stiles went to the other couch and shared with Kira, Liam and Mason on the floor in front of them.

Derek stood in front of the television and held three DVDs behind his back.  They used to browse Netflix for movie options but that ended up a bad idea because it had taken them 3 hours to choose a move.  Now Derek rented 3 movies based on the suggestions of different pack members each week and they voted.  Stiles usually got his way because he was able to talk people into whichever movie he wanted (though Derek had joked that they only agreed to his movies to get him to stop talking).  Now he wouldn’t even be able to declare his vote.  Life sucked.

The movies this week were _Ferris Bueller’s Day Off_ via Boyd (who always made good selections), _The Notebook_ via Lydia (who always suggested the same thing), and _Gone Girl_ via Allison (who had great taste in movies).  Stiles didn’t really care which was chosen this week, as all were good movies, still everyone automatically looked to him for his usual declarations of which they _must_ watch. He just shrugged and so Scott said that he would love to see _Gone Girl_ again because it was such a great movie.  Thus the discussion started and then everyone stated their vote. When it got to his turn he shrugged again.  Kira stated her vote into the pause that followed and they continued around the room. Gone Girl won, to no surprise, as even Lydia voted for it. 

Derek put the movie in and then sat next to Stiles, which still confused Stiles.  Ever since first pack movie night, Derek had always say next to Stiles and then complained about how much he talked during movies.  Like why sit by him if he didn’t like people talking in movies?! It made no sense. Stiles figured that he’d be happy today at the lack of interruptions.  When Derek sat down with no acknowledgement from Stiles, he opened his mouth but barely got out a “What—“ before Kira shushed him because she’d never seen the movie before.  The entire time the movie was running, Stiles felt Derek’s eyes on him and felt the room’s general confusion at the lack of interruption. 

Once the movie ended Kira declared that it was too creepy to end on so they should watch _Ferris Bueller’s Day Off_ too.  The rest of the pack agreed and Stiles got up to make more popcorn for everyone. He didn’t know that Derek had followed until he spun around and jumped at the other’s presence. “Are you okay?” Derek asked.

Stiles nodded. “You sure about that?” he sounded skeptical.  Stiles nodded again. The microwave beeped and he pulled the bag out, slightly burning his hands when he held onto it for too long. He somehow managed to keep the string of curses inward, though he saw that Derek noticed anyway. “You should run it under cold water,” Derek said.  Stiles gave him a look. It wasn’t that serious of a burn. When Derek realized that Stiles had no intention of holding his hand under cold water, he grabbed the bag of popcorn from him and put it on the counter before grabbing Stiles’ wrist and pulling him to the sink.  If Stiles were talking this was when he would begin to rant about how werewolves clearly don’t understand that sometimes injuries are minor even if they don’t heal right away.  But as he wasn’t speaking, he remained quiet.  Derek looked over at him and turned off the sink after he was satisfied Stiles’ finger was cold enough.  He grabbed a paper towel and started drying Stiles’ hand for him, before unwrapping it and looking at his finger.  “My little brother was human, he swore by the power of cold water to fix every burn. Better to feel nothing at all than to feel the pain,” Derek looked up into Stiles’ eyes.  Before it got to be too much, Isaac screamed at them to come back because he needed popcorn. 

The movie ended with little fanfare, though there was more talking during this movie, as it wasn’t as intriguing the 30th time watching it.  As they were all packing up to leave, Erica asked what was wrong with Stiles. Luckily, Lydia answered for him and told everyone that Stiles wasn’t talking.  “Why?” Derek immediately asked, looking at Stiles. Stiles shrugged. Everyone else seemed to not question it, Stiles did weird things all the time. Derek, not so much. His eyes didn’t leave Stiles until he left with Lydia.  On the drive home, Lydia complained about how they didn’t even watch _The Notebook_. 

When Stiles checked his phone before bed, he say a new message from Derek.  _If you want to talk about whatever it is (or not talk I guess), I’m here to listen_.  He didn’t know what that meant, but he was comforted by Derek’s support.

Laying in bed and trying to sleep, Stiles couldn’t help but think of what Derek said.  _Better to feel nothing at all than to feel the pain._   He couldn’t help but imagine Derek drowning in the cold to escape the burn. He sometimes forgot all that Derek had been through.  He didn’t even know before tonight that Derek had a younger brother.  It made him wonder what else his silence could teach him.

 

A week passed similarly and eventually everyone seemed to adjust to the new normal, though the outcome was more surprising than Stiles had thought.  As people grew used to his silence, they shared with him more. Learning about Derek’s younger brother wasn’t the only huge reveal that week.  He learned that Jackson felt bad for being a dick but didn’t know what to do about it, so he just acted like more of a dick.  He learned about Isaac’s fear of college because he didn’t want to lose the pack.  He learned of how serious Lydia’s feelings for Jackson were.  He learned about Erica’s insecurity that she hid behind her new werewolf act. He heard about Boyd’s little sister’s favorite activities.  He learned about Allison’s desire to become an advocate for non-violent relations through her father’s hunting network. 

He listened and learned. Pack movie night came again and they all watched the new _Jurassic Park_ movie and marveled over Claire’s ability to run in heels. They then decided to watch all the other _Jurassic Park_ movies and make it a slumber party.  He felt Derek’s eyes on him all night and finally turned to shoot him a questioning look. Derek just glanced toward the screen and pretended like he hadn’t been glaring at Stiles for the past 5 minutes. Stiles jabbed him with an elbow and went to the kitchen, hoping the other would receive the signal.

When Stiles got to the kitchen he turned around to look at Derek.  He just stood there until Derek broke, “Sorry.  It’s just weird, not hearing you talk,” Derek shrugged to match his words. Stiles wanted to apologize but it had become a thing for him, wanting to see how long he could remain silent. So, to show his apology, he decided to hug Derek.  He knew that werewolves were tactile, and though Stiles and Derek rarely hugged, hugs helped every other member of the pack, so they’d probably help Derek as well.

He felt Derek stiffed into the hug before he slowly relaxed and hugged back.  After a while, Derek dropped his head to rest upon Stiles’ shoulder, meaning that Stiles felt each hot, damp exhale against his skin. Eventually, Derek drew back, looking much less stressed and grabbed a bowl to pour some chips before handing it to Stiles with a smile.  Stiles returned the smile and walked back to continue watching the second movie (though it was the worst of the series).  Derek settled back next to him on the couch, actually focusing on the movie now that Stiles had addressed whatever weirdness was going on. 

When the pack did slumber parties it usually ended in a giant cuddle pile on the floor, so they learned that the best thing to do was just grab a shit ton of blankets and pillows and let everyone sort out positions for themselves.  Stiles usually ended up wedged between Lydia, Scott, and Erica, but tonight Derek grabbed him and pulled him to his side before everyone got settled. Lydia was still on his other side, but Scott was on her other side, with Allison.  He snuggled more into Derek’s heat (what?  The floor was cold) and closed his eyes as he felt everyone around him still settling into positions.  It was definitely the easiest time he’d ever had getting comfortable in a pack puppy pile. 

 

When he woke up in the morning, he was slightly drooling on Derek’s chest, and was locked in the strong grip of the other.  His attempts at extraction all failed and he ended up poking Derek in the face to get him to relax his grip.  Once Derek had ~~adorably~~ woken up, Stiles headed into the kitchen to start making pancakes. Derek groggily followed, though he had never been a morning person.  Stiles started the coffee before turning to grab the mix from the fridge as Derek searched for the pancake pan.  They quietly began making pancakes, Stiles in charge of manning the pan as Derek cut up some fruit and put it in a bowl.  After Derek had finished he snuck up behind Stiles and wrapped his arms around the other, resting his chin in the nook between Stiles’ neck and shoulder. It felt intimate, but in a good way. It felt like Stiles was only getting away with not freaking out about this because of the early morning quiet and his resolve to remain quiet.  The coffee machine beeped, drawing them out of their calm closeness. Derek drew back to grab them both a cup and by the time he was done preparing both cups, the pack was starting to wake in the other room.  The parade into the kitchen was led by Liam, who’s love for pancakes couldn’t be beat. They all enjoyed a lovely, rowdy pack dinner in Derek’s kitchen before heading out for the day. Stiles stayed behind to help Derek clean up the mess even though he was told those who cooked didn’t need to clean. He washed the dishes and held them out for Derek to dry and put away.  They usually did dishes together after pack meals, but it felt much more domestic than it ever had before.

He left once the dishes were done, but got another hug from Derek before he was out the door. He spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on homework and then Scott came over for videogames. Stiles was much improved since he’d stopped focusing half his energy on yelling insults at the screen.

He tried not to focus too much on the new intimacy between himself and Derek, but it was a hard thing to ignore. He couldn’t talk it out with his friends like he normally would’ve.  Still, he didn’t worry.  He was okay with the progression, and it seemed Derek was as well.  He’d try to let things move forward naturally.  That’s what people usually tried to do, right?

 

Two more weeks passed, Derek being just as affectionate as he had been on _Jurassic Park_ night.  It was odd, but appreciated.  Stiles was just getting used to the casual touches and lengthier hugs when it all went to shit.

Stupid.  Fucking.  Faeries.

Actual faeries, too. Human-sized with teeth like you wouldn’t imagine and smiles so creepy that they almost made him never want to see a smile again.  They were ugly things, their skin a sickly mix of green and brown, hair thin, unwashed, crinkled.

They set off one of the pack’s perimeter controls on a Thursday night.  Derek, Boyd, and Scott all went out to check to see what it was around 11:00 that night, and by 3:00 in the morning, no one had heard of them. Stiles was starting to get worried and so texted for an emergency pack meeting.  Everyone made their way to his house and they were all seated in various states of dress by 3:30.  Lydia started it by stating what had happened and the current plan:  to go look where the perimeter had been breached and bring weapons in the form of claws, bows, bats, and screams. 

They ran into the faeries on their way to the breach.  Scott, Derek, and Boyd were tied to a tree in the middle of their circle.  The faeries smiled when the rest of the pack arrived, baring their hideously creepy teeth.  Kira asked for the three wolves back, and was laughed at.  Stiles decided enough was enough and swung his bat at the head of the closest fae, thus beginning the fight.  Stiles’ swing landed with a thud against the fae’s skull, dropping it to the ground where it didn’t seem to be getting up any time soon.

He then made his way over to the tree that his pack member’s were tied to.  “What took you guys so long?” Scott joked as Stiles cut the rope.

“Down!” Derek shouted, shoving Stiles to the floor as a ball of fire hit the tree where their heads had all been not 2 seconds prior.  They all got up and joined the fray.  It quickly became apparent that the pack was at an advantage.  After years of fighting big bads together, they’d gotten the routine down.  Fight with a buddy and always be aware of your surroundings were the two most basic rules. Stiles paired up with Boyd and they took down 2 faeries quickly, just about to help Allison and Kira when Scott when flying into Boyd.  Stiles turned to look for Derek and found him watching Scott and Boyd struggling to get up instead of looking behind him. 

“Derek!” Stiles yelled, voice croaking after a month of disuse.  Derek turned to look to Stiles in shock before he was thrown by a fae spell into a tree. Erica and Isaac quickly took down the fae that cast it, but Stiles was only focused on Derek’s limp body. He began to run for him, before he saw that Jackson beat him to it, leaving Lydia without a buddy, Stiles filled the empty position and subdued one of the last fae.  The fae were all lying incapacitated on the ground and the pack tied them together using mountain ash infused rope.  Once that was done, Stiles turned his attention to Derek.

“Is he okay,” he croaked to Jackson.

“I’m fine,” Derek said, trying to get up from where Jackson held him down. 

“Clearly, because you are so easily escaping Jackson’s grip,” Stiles pointed out.

“Whatever, who asked you anyway?” Derek snapped, clearly upset at his lost strength.  Before Stiles could either retreat into himself or snap back, Derek looked up like he was sick with himself, “Sorry, I didn’t mean that, I’m sorry.”

Stiles was thrown. “Don’t worry about it, dude. I’ll help you home.” The pack checked on everyone and decided to reunite at Derek’s after school the next day for debriefing.   Stiles helped put Derek in his passenger seat and began the journey to the house.  “Things like this are why we decided to recon before action. So that we don’t get hurt and end up in situations that involve us and being tied to trees for several hours before our friends decide to check in on us and make sure we are okay. Plan first, act later. And even if you want to say it was recon, I won’t believe you.  Taking your seconds for recon, dude, of course I see through that.  What were you thinking?” Stiles paused, waiting for Derek to answer him.  “Are you going to answer my question?”  He glanced over at Derek, who was staring at him like he was lost.  “Dude?”

“You’re talking,” Derek stated.

“Acute observation.”

“You should keep talking.” That threw Stiles.

“What?”  He glanced at Derek again.

“I missed listening to you talk,” Derek mumbled, suddenly finding his hands very interesting.  “So if you wanted to stop your not talking thing, that’d be pretty cool.”

Stiles swallowed and didn’t talk until he was pulling into Derek’s driveway and then helping the other into his house and up to his room.  “I didn’t know you missed it so much.  Hell, I didn’t know you missed it at all,” he whispered, kneeling in front of where Derek was seated at the edge of his bed.

Derek rested his forehead against Stiles, hunching a little to make the move possible.  “I missed it five minutes into that first pack movie night, idiot. I miss it whenever you close your goddamn mouth,” he whispered back, the words brushing along Stiles’ upper lip. “My wolf was going crazy, not being able to hear you.  _I_ was going crazy.”

Stiles smiled, his cheeks hurting with the force of it.  “That’s probably good. If you want, we could go to dinner, sometime.  I promise to talk.”

“I want,” Derek said, smiling too, but smaller than Stiles’.  “I really want.”

Stiles laughed, leaning in to peck Derek before standing up and pushing the other onto the bed. Derek went willingly, reaching up to pull Stiles to him.  Instead, Stiles grabbed the blankets from the end of the bed and wrapped them around Derek. At Derek’s upset look Stiles laughed. “Gotta wine and dine me first. I’m no floozy. Plus, you need to rest right now, dude.”

“I’m not your dude,” Derek grumbled, pulling the sheets up to his chin.

“Well then, no goodnight kiss for you,” Stiles said, turning to the door.  Derek caught him so quickly he would’ve been suspicious had he not known the other had superhuman speed.  He was pulled down quickly and Derek used his other hand to grab the back of Stiles’ head and draw him in for a much longer kiss.  When Stiles withdrew, he smiled and got up to turn off the lights, peeking into the room one last time to whisper “Goodnight, dude” before closing the door. He heard the distinctive sound of a pillow hitting it right after it clicked shut.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Comments and kudos appreciated!
> 
> I envision this to be toward the end of the pack's senior year of college, so Stiles is 18 but nothing actually happens between him and Derek.
> 
> If you found any mistakes please let me know! I wrote this in one afternoon so I'm sure they are plentiful. 
> 
> Tumblr: whowhatwhenwhereandwhynot.tumblr.com
> 
> I'm thinking of adding an epilogue because I want to see the pack's reaction to Stiles beginning to talk again. I also may add a bit of this from Derek's perspective because why not!


End file.
